The snow was late in coming that year, but the first snow was magical for Winter. She had been named for the snows in Dirland, but had never actually witnessed one herself. So when she woke up to snow outside her tent, she was so surprised. Though, not enough so that she couldn't think of many pranks to play on everyone.

She got piles and piles of snow, and pushed it into Nathaniel's tent, so he would wake up to nothing but snow. Getting all the snow past the guards was tricky, but she was good at talking people into things.

Nathaniel had been having fitful dreams of going back to the castle without Winter, and woke up once again. At least, he thought he had woken up.

But there were piles of snow surrounding him. He knew the nights had been cold, but there was no way this much snow could just appear on it's own in a tent. "Another dream, at least this one is interesting."

He climbed over the snow piles to the exit of the tent, slipping and stumbling down the pile, he tumbled out the door, catching the guards by surprise.

"Ho there! You're not allowed out here!" They yelled at him.

But he, thinking it was a dream, disregarded them. Well, until they tackled him to the ground.

He hadn't had a fight in a long while, so he was rather enjoying throwing himself against these guards.

He was holding one down, with the other on his back, when he felt a snowball hit the back of his head. "Hey! Who did that?" He looked up to see Winter laughing. "You'll regret it." he said, tossing the guards off of him and chasing after her.

Realizing his intentions, Winter took off running into the woods. Hiding behind a tree, she started making a pile of snowballs to use once Nathaniel found her. It wouldn't be long, her tracks led straight to her.

Nathaniel quietly climbed the tree Winter was hiding behind, she was too occupied with making snowballs to look up.

"Boo!" he said, dropping down after she had a good sized pile.

"Ahh!" she jumped back in surprise, "Nathaniel! Don't do that!"

He grinned, enjoying playing with her.

"What? This?" he said, picking up a snowball and throwing it at her.

"That too!"

The guards had followed Nathaniel, fearing his escape. When they lunged for him, he threw a few of Winter's snowballs at them.

"Jerard!" Winter yelled to the senior guard "Let him have some fun!" throwing some snowballs at him.

The younger guard threw some snowballs back, having fun.

Nathaniel didn't like anyone throwing snowballs at Winter but himself. So he pelted the young guard with a rain of snowballs, defending Winter.

Some way or another, they fell into a snowball war. The guards on one team, and Winter and Nathaniel on the other.

Robert was walking along the path in-between tents, just coming back from breakfast, when he was caught in the crossfire of the snowball war. "Jerard!" he yelled, Jerard being the one who threw the ball. "Why aren't you at your post, and where is the prisoner?"

Jerard pointed to an incoming snowball thrown by none other than Nathaniel. Turning his head to follow Jerard's finger, Robert put his face in just the right spot to have the snowball hit it square in the middle.

"Jerard!" he yelled again.

Jerard didn't answer, he was too busy laughing himself into oblivion.

"Uhgg! Do I have to do everything myself?" Robert grumbled, bending down to form a few snowballs.

"Hey!" Jerard said, knocked out of his laughter by the snowball Robert threw at his head.

"Don't just stand there, we have a snowball fight to win!" Robert ordered with a competitive smile.

Jerard grinned and started making a pile of snowballs.

Trick, the younger guard, already had a pile as big as a small shrub made. Robert had a pretty good sized pile too.

The snowballs flew for the next several hours.

Winter and Nathaniel finally ran out of snowballs and depended on the trees to block the others' snowballs.

Running side by side away from Jerard and his vicious snowballs, all at once, they fell in a deep ditch that was filled with fluffy snow.

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Winter tried to pull herself out, but her feet wouldn't budge from where they were buried in the snow. Nathaniel tried to get out too, but his feet had suffered the same fate.

They were surrounded by snow, a hole showing the sky above them where they broke it through.

"It seems we're stuck." Nathaniel said with a smirk.

"Why do you sound so happy about it?" Winter asked, her eyes narrowed, shivering because of the cold.

He smiled, a real smile, the one that made his face light up like the sun. "No reason."

They were facing each other, close enough to hug.

No words were said as they gazed into each other's eyes. Content to just stay there forever. No Robert was there deviously capturing Nathaniel. No King to come and despise Winter. Just the two of them, and their unspoken feelings for the other.

He leaned his head in closer, no thought going into the movement.

She didn't realize his closeness until her breath caught in her throat because of it.

"There you are!" exclaimed Robert, staring into the hole he found them in.

"Hi." she said quietly, a guilty smile on her face.

It was highly improper for anything that just happened, to happen. Thinking about it, she blushed.

Robert noticed the side glances Winter and Nathaniel gave each other, and the blush on her cheeks anytime she caught Nathaniel's stare, but didn't comment on it. Now he knew for sure that they were more than just friends, that his suspicions were correct.

"In you go." said Robert, holding the tent door open for Nathaniel.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes in annoyance, but exhausted by the snow ball fight, and his moment with Winter, he didn't resist as much as he usually would.

Nathaniel was put in a different tent than before, once Robert heard about the piles of snow residing in his other tent.

Back in Robert's main tent, he was questioning Winter.

"You put all that snow in his tent?" incredulity strongly present in his voice.

Winter nodded her head, triumph in her eyes for coming up with such an amazing prank.

He raised his eyebrows at her, curious, but didn't question her farther on it.

"So you have feelings for him?" he changed the subject, knowing the truth, but wondering what she would admit.

"Who?" she asked, completely oblivious to his intent.

"Nathaniel." he didn't waste time in saying.

She blushed, but all she said was, "As a good friend, of course!"

He gave her a teasing smile, "Someone's in lo-ove." drawing out the last word sing songy.

"What!? No. Where did you come up with that?" she exclaimed, indignant.

It was highly improper to be teasing her about this, or for any boy to be, in fact. But then, outlaws weren't known for being proper.

As soon as thoughts of love entered her mind, she had been worried about properly going about it. Before, she didn't care if what she did with Nathaniel was improper, but with him as a possible suitor in her mind, it changed everything.

"Winter and Nathaniel sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-"

"Stop!" she screamed, her face flaming.

He just laughed, finding her embarrassment amusing.